I told her truthfully that I am not paid enough to be able to afford to bring in a dozen donuts every week like my supervisor and other two co-workers to.
My supervisor is a child-free woman. One of my co-workers is a child-free man. The other co-worker is a grandmother who's going to retire in a couple of years. All of them are full-time, salaried staff. I am the only hourly staff in the office, making $17 an hour. They all know I'm a single mom, they all know exactly how much I make. They all get paid time off, hour long lunches, they're constantly door dashing food into the office, etc. When my supervisor asked what could be done to make the job better for me at my beginning of the year review, I was honest and told her I would love a pay raise. I told her the only reason I stay with this job is because I don't have to work weekends like how I did in retail and that saves me a little bit of money on weekend daycare costs for my daughter. While I am super grateful for this job (my last job in retail I was making $10.25 an hour and had to have a roommate and it sucked) I have to keep my options open because I want to do better than $17 an hour.
I get why they don't think about it – two of my co-workers don't have kids and the other has adult children. I don't have money to drive an hour away to a conference that I won't be reimbursed for gas. I don't have the money to attend a conference in a different state like they do because they'll have an option of per diem. I have a little kid I have to look out for and make sure our bills are paid. Yesterday, my supervisor was talking about how she is about to purchase a beach house and it made me so weirdly jealous. Here she is, about to purchase a house and I'm skipping meals to make sure my kid has lunches and snacks for daycare for the week. I'm walking around with holes in my socks and wishing I could just win the lottery to be able to move out of my shitty apartment. The child support my ex is required to pay is barely enough to pay the utilities, and that's when he pays it on time like he's supposed to. I dream of waking up one day not in poverty and just be able to do what I want and not have to be asked about bringing in fucking donuts.